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installed BESR 8.5, now my server is acting odd memory-wise...

solmssen
Level 2
Hi all,

I have a Dell PowerEdge 2600 with 4GB RAM and SBS 2003 SP2 and I just installed BESR 8.5. Since that installation, the server's been getting complaints about performance from users. When I go to Task Manager, I'm used to seeing PF usage around 3.8 GB, but now it's down to 2.1, and available RAM is up around 1.7GB.  It's just odd.  Can anyone think of a direction to look in? The server is working, BESR is working, just these performance issues and the odd change in a number I've been used to for a long time. I would dearly love to hear any advice you've got...
9 REPLIES 9

marcogsp
Level 6
Would Exchange server happen to be installed on this server?

http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/316791.htm

criley
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited
Please confirm which build of 8.5 you have..

solmssen
Level 2
Yes - it's an SBS 2003 server, so it has Exchange 2003 SP2 on it...

That document is certainly interesting, but I'm not seeing that type of error in my logs -

I'm flailing around on Google and wondering if the /3gb startup switch is called for here.

solmssen
Level 2
About Backup Exec System Recovery reports 8.5.3.31483.

criley
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited
What errors do you see in event and/or BESR logs?

solmssen
Level 2
I don't really see any errors. I looked for anything that looks like problems allocating memory in the system and application logs, and there's nothing there. What I see is a system that was using close to 4GB of RAM on a day-in-day-out basis all of a sudden using 2GB, and I hear a lot of complaints from users that the server seems to "stutter" loading in folders in Outlook when they switch from folder to folder - they get the "requesting data" popup and have to wait 15-30 secs when they didn't before.

I wish I had more to go on, but I've lived with this server for 4 years now, and it just doesn't feel right for a busy SBS2003 machine with Exchange, BESR, and SMSMSE 6 on it to be using 2GB and leaving 2GB on the table.

marcogsp
Level 6
A 32 bit system, even if it is on 64 bit hardware will only use about 3GB of memory since that is all its registers can handle.  Perhaps the /3GB switch may be in order.

Have you tried temporarily stopping the BESR services, including the VSS writer services it installs?  If perfromance improves after that, then the BESR services would be contributing to the performance lag.

How often are you capturing images?

AJT
Level 6
Maybe the /PAE boot ini switch will help:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa366796(VS.85).aspx

marcogsp
Level 6
Thanks for the tip AJT.  I hav a couple of developer workstations that I want to try this on.  The linked atricle also does a good job of explaining how the other large memory models compare and operate